Release and Reception
While "The Frying Game" was originally thought to be the last episode of the season, "Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge" was later revealed to be the real season finale. Although new episodes of The Simpsons usually air on Sundays, "Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge" aired on Wednesday, May 22, 2002. In its original American broadcast, "Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge" received a 5.0 rating, according to Nielsen Media Research, translating to approximately 5.3 million viewers. The episode finished in 53rd place in the ratings for the week of May 20-26, 2002. Together with the first half-hour of Celebrity Boxing, the shows averaged a 3.9 rating among adults between ages 18 and 49, pushing Fox to number two for the night, just behind NBC. On August 24, 2010, "Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge" was released as part of The Simpsons: The Complete Thirteenth Season DVD and Blu-ray set. Al Jean, Matt Selman, Carolyn Omine, Dana Gould, Joe Mantegna and Pete Michels participated in the audio commentary of the episode.
Following its home video release, "Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge" received mixed reviews from critics. Writing for 411Mania, Ron Martin gave the episode a mixed review, calling it "passable." He wrote that "Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge" is "far from memorable as season finales should be." DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson wrote "Like many S13 episodes, “Badge” feels more than a little derivative," describing the episode as a combination of the season 4 episode "Mr. Plow" and the season 5 episode "Homer the Vigilante". He continued by writing "That doesn’t mean the show lacks amusement, but it’s too rehashed to end the year with a real winner." Nate Boss of Project-Blu described it as "A random episode, without many laughs," however, he added that it "could have been worse." Giving the episode a positive review, Jennifer Malkowski of DVD Verdict gave it a B+, billing "Homer's 'You know I've had a lot of jobs' list" as the episode's "highlight." Writing for Screen Jabber, Stuart O'Connor was favorable as well, describing it as a "first-rate ep."
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